The present disclosure relates to an information processing device and an imaging device which output image data, and an information processing method applied to the information processing device.
Image data treated in information processing devices such as imaging devices tends to have an increasing number of pixels as resolution becomes higher. As an imaging device, for example, an imaging device that can capture images which have image resolution of one frame indicated by the number of horizontal pixels×the number of vertical lines of about 4000×about 2000, which is so-called 4K resolution or 4K2K resolution, has been developed.
Image data of 4K resolution has about 4 times as many pixels in one frame as image data of an HD (High Definition) format of the related art. For this reason, when the image data of 4K resolution (hereinafter referred to as “4K image data”) is transmitted, it is necessary to transmit data of about 4 times as many pixels in a period of one frame, and the transfer rate increases to about 4 times that of image data of the HD format. Transmission of image data with such a high transfer rate to another device is challenging at present.
As one technique of transmitting image data of 4K resolution, 4-division transmission with 4 prepared transmission paths is known. In other words, when an imaging device is to be connected to another device, for example, the connection is performed using 4 connection cables, and an image processing unit in the imaging device divides 4K image data into 4, and then generates 4 pieces of divided image data of the HD format. Then, the imaging device separately outputs the 4 pieces of divided image data of the HD format to the 4 transmission cables. The device that has received the image data transmitted from the imaging device combines the image data separately transmitted from the 4 transmission cables into one piece of data to restore the original 4K image data.
By dividing data into 4 pieces as described above, the transfer rate of each transmission cable becomes substantially the same as the transfer rate when the image data of the HD format is transmitted, and thus 4K image data can be transmitted in application of an established transmission format.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-259332 discloses an example of the technique of dividing 4K image data into 4 pieces of data and transmitting them.